We all know how stressful being sick and in a hospital can be, but sometimes adults don’t realize that children deal with those same emotions.
Child Life Specialists at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital are there to help children and their families cope with the stress and anxiety that comes with being hospitalized.
Child Life Specialists are specially trained to provide emotional support for families because they understand that a child’s well-being is dependent on the support of their family. They help promote coping through play, age-appropriate preparation, and education as well as self-expression activities.
Child Life Specialists help the hospital become a not-so-scary place by:
Normalizing hospital stays by celebrating birthdays, holidays and developmental milestones
Through play, learning and communication, Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital Child Life Specialists help kids understand and process the complex feelings that can occur in a hospital.
A Child Life Internship offers specialized fieldwork experience with children and their families under the supervision of a Certified Child Life Specialist. This experience is designed to facilitate the student’s growth as a professional through participation as a member of a multidisciplinary health care team. The internship consists of a 40-hour work week for 15 weeks, for a total of 600 hours. Internships are offered each fall, spring, and summer.
Our internship program does not require the student to be enrolled in a university during the internship experience. If the student is completing the internship experience for school credit, an affiliation agreement must be made between the student’s university and Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. Applications must be received per the deadlines set by the Child Life Council.
There will be no Spring 2024 Child Life internships.
A Child Life Practicum provides students who are majoring in Child Life, Family Studies, Child Development or a related field the opportunity to work with hospitalized children under the supervision of a certified Child Life Specialist. Practicum students will have the opportunity to observe the Child Life Specialist facilitate pre-procedural preparation, procedural support and distraction, and medical/therapeutic play. Practicum students will also have the opportunity to participate in playroom programming and provide bedside play.
Practicum Goals/Objectives:
Plan and facilitate playroom activities and bedside activities.
Please note that Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital Child Life Program is not accepting interns or practicum students at this time.
